MOT Collection: Past Light, Present Sight

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo is home to around 6,100 works of primarily postwar art, and each MOT Collection exhibition presents a selection of these works, from a different perspective.　 The latest, “Past Light, Present Sight,” focuses on the themes of light and time, and features a wealth of new acquisitions.　Whether it be light emitted many thousands of years ago by distant stars, sunlight that shifts amid the sands of time, the ethereal glow of moonlight, the glare of electric lamps illuminating their surroundings, or the evanescent flickering of fireflies, light in its myriad permutations features heavily in our day-to-day lives. Seeing, viewing, observing these diverse manifestations of light can also conjure up moments from the past, or scenes from a particular time, and one could say that the “now” we are living is shaped by the layering and linking of time, passed down along with light. Through works by artists including KOSEMURA Mami, TSUCHIYA Kimio, KUMAGAI Arisa, and TOYA Shigeo, “Past Light, Present Sight” turns its attention to the past inherent in the present, and contemplates the stratified nature of time.

Exhibition period：2026/09/19～2027/01/06
Exhibition Information

MOT Collection: Past Light, Present Sight

Related works

Untitled ("Monument" for V. Tatlin)

COVID19 MAY 2020

[Title Unknown]

Sightseeing Art Research Institute, "Walking Exhibition"

Sightseeing Art Research Institute, "Walking Exhibition"

Flowering Plants of the Four Seasons

Say yes to me

Say yes to me

Star Dust of One Hundred Million Light-Years

Walking on the Sea of Death

Untitled #3

Regarding Living Beings

Regarding Living Beings

Drawing

The missing shade 53-1

The missing shade 52-1

The missing shade 51-1

The missing shade 50-1

The missing shade 57-1

The missing shade 57-2

The missing shade 56-1

Diagram F

AIR=Sfumato Gradual Progress (No. 0 - 19)

Diary: May 31st '72 (b)

Diary: May 31st '72 (a)

Timeless Paintings

Pampas grassーwave

Drawn at Night

Mirror Drawing

Face of Oiran

Punk Street

Oiran

[Oiran]

[Oiran]

[Oiran]

Lake Superior, Cascade River

Akron Civic, Ohio

South Pacific Ocean, Waihau

Goshen, Indiana

English Channel, Weston Clif

Celtic Sea, St. Agnes

Tyrrhenian Sea, Scilla

Ligurian Sea, Saviore

Metropolitan Orpheum, L.A.

Moon grows to the moon

The first suggestion

Cabbage moon

Big diamond

Moon's satisfaction

I feel, therefore I exist

A point

The machine

Time elevator

Spider's with

The Alamo Sphinx

Death of the Kiln of the Elephant of the Woods

Relation of C

A Dark Night's Flashing: From the Red Darkness

Picasso in the 20th Year

Experimental Report

Destiny

Shot Inspiration

Sailing Boats - Forenoon

Mt. Hotakadake [from "Twelve Scenes in the Japan Alps"]

Morning on Mt. Tsurugidake [from "Twelve Scenes in the Japan Alps"]

Goshikigahara [from "Twelve Scenes in the Japan Alps"]

Sailing Boats - Morning

The Old Inner Citadel [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

Kagurazaka Street after a Night Rain [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

Snow at Nakazato [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

The Tokugawa-Peony Garden at Ochiai [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

The Iris Garden at Horikiri [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

Kameido [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

Autumn in the Hyakkaen Garden [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

The Sumidagawa River in the Mist [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

The Sumidagawa River in the Evening [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

The Sumidagawa River [from "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"]

Sailing Boats - Mist